NEON data products: Enabling continental-scale ecological science

Background/Question/Methods

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a NSF-funded major research and facilities initiative under development, designed to address how climate change, land use change, and invasive species affect ecological science on a continental scale.  The standardization of measurement methodologies, engineering practice, and data organization across NEON's twenty domains fosters the creation of ecological data products.  These data products are community-approved and Observatory-vetted sets of data covering the breadth of NEON collection activities, including measurements of physical variables such as air, water, and soil temperature and chemistry, observations and analyses of species and habitats, and airborne spectral and LiDAR remote sensing.  Together, these low-level (fundamental measurement and observation data)and high-level (integrative, continental-scale assessments) will be useful for scientists, students, educators, policymakers, and the general public.

Results/Conclusions

Here, we discuss the development status of NEON’s data product suites, describing how they are constructed and vetted, and provide an example of how one current effort will provide several foundational data products.  Further, we discuss and solicit feedback for how stakeholder communities can contribute to their veracity and validation.